The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
