Книга The Four Spent the Day Together
An unforgettable new novel from the author of the modern classic I Love Dick — a witty, probing journey into a fractured America, culminating in the investigation of a teenage murder.
On the Iron Range of northern Minnesota, at the end of the last decade, three teenagers shot and killed an older acquaintance after spending the day with him. In a cold, rundown town, the three young people were quickly arrested and imprisoned. No one knows why they did it.
At the time of the murder, Catt Greene and her husband, Paul Garcia, are living nearby in a house they’d bought years earlier as a summer escape from Los Angeles. Undergoing a period of personal turmoil, moving between LA and Minnesota — between the urban art world and the rural poverty of the icy Iron Range — Catt turns away from her own life and towards the murder case, which soon becomes an obsession. In her attempt to pierce through the mystery surrounding the murder and to understand the teenagers’ lives, Catt also finds herself travelling back through the idiosyncratic, aspirational lives of her parents in the working-class Bronx and small-town, blue-collar Milford, Connecticut.
Written in three linked parts, The Four Spent the Day Together explores the histories of three generations of American lives and the patterns that repeat over lifetimes, and is piercing commentary on the pressures of lives lived on the edge.
"
‘The latest work of autofiction by an iconic Los Angeles writer … Kraus’ relentless curiosity is a gravitational force.’
" - Kirkus Reviews"
‘An episodic journey … It is an attempt to make sense of chaos. Kraus bears witness to a nation reckoning with its undoing … Though Kraus distances herself from the term “autofiction”, this novel sits comfortably alongside works by Maggie Nelson, Sheila Heti and Olivia Laing, abandoning conventional plot and blurring the lines between fact and fiction.’
" - The Saturday Paper"
‘Her first novel in more than a decade, The Four Spent the Day Together, reflects on and ironises contemporary America’s cultural rot … It chronicles decay across three linked chapters, reflecting on the (first) Trump election, online cancellation, the hollowing-out of the working and middle class, and a frightening murder case … A keen sense of irony inhabits Kraus’ work.’
" - The Sydney Morning Herald"
‘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 … 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.’
" - Readings"
‘An American Annie Ernaux … Further testament to her skill and audacity as a writer.’
" - The Times Literary Supplement"
‘A permanent literary It Girl … Her new true-crime novel, The Four Spent the Day Together, once again sees her remaking a genre in her own image.’
" - The New Yorker"
‘I couldn't put it down.’
" - Stylist"
Praise for Chris Kraus:
‘A powerfully original writer.’
" - The New York Times"
Praise for I Love Dick:
‘Chris Kraus’s I Love Dick offers the story of a woman named Chris Kraus — also an experimental filmmaker, just like the author — reckoning with her unrequited love for “Dick ____”, a cultural critic with whom she becomes obsessed. The narrative is an exploration of desire as something other than passivity or inadequacy and relentless romantic pursuit not as self-degradation but a kind of generative, creative act.’
" - The New York Times"
Praise for I Love Dick:
‘The most important book about men and women written in the last century.’
" - The Guardian"
Praise for I Love Dick:
‘A clever, finely crafted crossover between life, love, and cultural studies.’
" - The Australian"
Praise for I Love Dick:
‘Tart, brazen, and funny … a cautionary tale, I Love Dick raises disturbing but compelling questions about female social behaviour, power, control.’
" - The Nation"
Praise for I Love Dick:
‘Devastatingly funny and sublime … a new classic.’
" - The Seattle Stranger"
Praise for I Love Dick:
‘A little masterpiece of late twentieth century literature.’
" - East Hampton Star"
Praise for I Love Dick:
‘Ever since I read I Love Dick, I have revered it as one of the most explosive, revealing, lacerating, and unusual memoirs ever committed to the page … I Love Dick is never a comfortable read, and it is by turns exasperating, horrifying, and lurid, but it is never less than genuine, and often completely illuminating about the life of the mind.’
" - Post Road