The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "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 different style could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
