The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
