The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
