The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
