The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona 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 account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
