The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
