The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise 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. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile 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 aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
