The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "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. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
