The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered 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. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
