The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks 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 be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
