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

This latest work is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par