A Look at The Four Spent the Day Together by author Chris Kraus – A Cult Writer Ventures Into Something New

This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par