The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
