The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application 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 funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
