The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
