The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application 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 funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
