The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an creative who became a writer 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 persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
