The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering 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 fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
