🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene 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 control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par