The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par