The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
