Exploring The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus – A Cult Writer Explores Something New

The new book is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" 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 new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par