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

The new book is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated 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 explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par