The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
