The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story 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 wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion 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 the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
