The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells 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 wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
