The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
