The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives 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 a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
