The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus – A Renowned Writer Attempts New Ground
The Four Spent the Day Together features characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
