A Look at The Four Spent the Day Together by author Chris Kraus – An Iconic Writer Attempts Fresh Territory

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par