The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows 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 current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
