The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source 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 alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
