The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is 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 start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
