The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
