The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par