The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par