The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for 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 exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
