The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
