The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states 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 be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
