🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl 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 complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par