The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
