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

The Four Spent the Day Together centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par