The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, 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 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 responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in 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 fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
