The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages 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 be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
