The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – 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, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
