The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
