🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see 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 funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par