The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
