The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
