🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

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 fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par