The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
