A Look at The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus – A Renowned Writer Explores Fresh Territory

This latest work is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around 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 hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par