The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
