The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
