The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
