The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this 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 follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
