The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
