The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
