The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
