The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
