The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise 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 directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile 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 violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
