The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased 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 sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, 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 go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
