The Four Spent the Day Together

Breaking news: Chris Kraus, the author of I Love Dick (among other things) is not a writer. She’s a landlord. At least, that’s according to the trolls – online and IRL – who haunt both the real Kraus, and her avatar in this exceptional novel. On the upside, if success is the best revenge, Kraus absolutely owns her critics with The Four Spent the Day Together.

One of Kraus’s distinguishing features as a writer – and one of the great pleasures of reading her – is the extent to which she is not a stylist. Her prose is magnificently plain in a way that heightens rather than dulls whatever else is going on – and keeps us focused on what she’s trying to say – while her nuance, sophistication and extraordinary technical skills are an absolute joy to behold.

This book is in three parts, with each revealing something surprising and important (including the fact that this is autofiction). We begin with the reflections of a young woman in the 1960s, growing up in rural Connecticut. We meet the same woman, older and an established writer (and landlord), in the second. And in the third part … well … everything both comes together, and falls apart. Kraus never does anything as obvious as showing us ‘the point’. Instead, she delivers us to a place where (a) the title finally makes sense and (b) the quietly entertaining first third is both mirrored and upended by the events of the chaotic conclusion.

It’s hard to overstate what Kraus has achieved in this ripping read: an excoriating essay on the devolution of American society in the 21st century; an elegant refutation of cancel culture; an examination of addiction that’s equal parts forensic and heartbreaking; and an emotional gut punch that will leave you stunned. Not a bad effort for a landlord.