The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. 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 departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent 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 partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
