The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind 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 recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
