The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
