The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into 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. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
