The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished 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 taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
