The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "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 appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this 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 is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind 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 allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. 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 point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
