The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "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. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
