The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
