The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
