The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
