The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
