The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative 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 hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
