The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
