The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
