The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
