A Look at The Four Spent the Day Together from Chris Kraus – A Renowned Writer Attempts New Ground
This latest work centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
