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

The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued 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 personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par