The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
