The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
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 tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
