The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting 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 herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
