The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states 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 spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
