The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
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 the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression 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 may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
