The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
