The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
