The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic 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 lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, 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 declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
