The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
