The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
