The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
