The Four Spent the Day Together from Chris Kraus – A Renowned Writer Attempts Something New

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par