The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of 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 directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
