The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "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 Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
