The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
