The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
