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

This latest work features individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. 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 powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America 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 eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing 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 strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par