The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, 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
