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

This latest work centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates 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 destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression 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 online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par