The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
