The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
