The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
