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

The new book features individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par