The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
