The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
