The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character 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. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter 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 youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
