A Look at The Four Spent the Day Together by author Chris Kraus – A Renowned Writer Ventures Into New Ground
The Four Spent the Day Together features characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, 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
