The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
