The Four Spent the Day Together from Chris Kraus – A Cult Writer Attempts New Ground

This latest work features protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, 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

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par