The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success 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 troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, 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 delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
