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

The new book features protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. 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 Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par