The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation 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 spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
