The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
