The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" 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 looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
