The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
