🔗 Share this article

The Four Spent the Day Together features characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors 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 killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when 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 in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par