The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. 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 her narrative ends almost mid-par
