The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "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 wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
