The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed 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 partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
