The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the tone 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 significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
