The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
