The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
