The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice 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 disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
