The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
