The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
