The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally 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 substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
