The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide 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 see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
