The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
