The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered 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 narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
