The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
