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

The new book centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par