The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
