The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform 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 paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression 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 comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with 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
