The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
