The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks 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 be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
