The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control 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 strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
