The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named 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, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
