The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide 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 perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
