The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
