The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
