The Four Spent the Day Together from author Chris Kraus – A Cult Writer Explores Something New

The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "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 individual reinvention, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par