The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
