The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, 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 narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
