The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing 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 persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
