The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic 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 following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
