Exploring The Four Spent the Day Together by author Chris Kraus – A Cult Writer Explores Fresh Territory

The Four Spent the Day Together features protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par