The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
