The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, 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 external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails 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 degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
