🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired 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 repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par