The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
