The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired 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 aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
