The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension 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 omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
