The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
