The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears 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 America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
