The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder 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 Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
