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

This latest work features protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par