The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to 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 detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
