The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world 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 rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted 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 who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see 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 getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
