Exploring The Four Spent the Day Together from author Chris Kraus – A Cult Writer Explores New Ground

This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par