The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. 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 leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
