The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer began as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
