The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. 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 fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par