The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
