The Four Spent the Day Together from author Chris Kraus – An Iconic Writer Ventures Into Fresh Territory

This latest work centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning 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 late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par