The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
