The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
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 clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
