The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet 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 getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par