The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
