The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
