The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
