The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
