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

This latest work centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par