The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
