The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics 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 type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
