The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses 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 beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
