The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states 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 social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim 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 with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
