The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging 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 nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
