The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of 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 account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice 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 committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet 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 alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
