The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus – A Renowned Writer Ventures Into New Ground

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling 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 account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par