The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
