The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
