The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
