The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is 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 account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened 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, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
