The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally 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 continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in 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 jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
