A Look at The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus – An Iconic Writer Ventures Into Something New

The new book features characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says 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 online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, 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