The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension 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 jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
