The Four Spent the Day Together from Chris Kraus – An Iconic Writer Explores Something New

This latest work centers on characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

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

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned 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 social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par