The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
