The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified 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 investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied 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 her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
