A Look at The Four Spent the Day Together by author Chris Kraus – A Cult Writer Attempts New Ground

This latest work is populated with individuals seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par