The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
