LA Review of Books

Chris Kraus's "The Four Spent the Day Together"


Listen Later

Chris Kraus joins Kate Wolf to talk about her new novel, "The Four Spent the Day Together." Organized into three linked sections, the book begins with a portrait of Kraus’s avatar, Catt Greene, and her family, as they struggle to overcome the isolation of the suburbs after moving into their first home in Milford, Connecticut, in the late 1950s. The book’s second part takes place many decades later: Catt is now a well-known novelist grappling with sudden fame and her failing marriage to an alcoholic ex-con named Paul Garcia with whom she lives part time in the woods of Minnesota. The final section finds Catt investigating a crime that has taken place near her home with Paul, in the neighboring town of Harding, when three teenagers senselessly murder a man after spending a full 24-hours together. What binds the stories together is alienation, chance, the acceleration of history and the spoils of late capitalism, the devastation of addiction, and an attempt to reconcile something even darker and more ineffable about the American project as it exists today.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

LA Review of BooksBy LA Review of Books

  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3

4.3

69 ratings


More shows like LA Review of Books

View all
The New Yorker: Fiction by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker: Fiction

3,347 Listeners

The Book Review by The New York Times

The Book Review

3,879 Listeners

Otherppl with Brad Listi by Brad Listi

Otherppl with Brad Listi

523 Listeners

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry by David Naimon, Tin House Books

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry

459 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

290 Listeners

New Books in Critical Theory by Marshall Poe

New Books in Critical Theory

147 Listeners

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker by The New Yorker

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker

2,150 Listeners

London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

London Review Bookshop Podcast

128 Listeners

The Shakespeare and Company Interview by Shakespeare and Company

The Shakespeare and Company Interview

92 Listeners

The TLS Podcast by The TLS

The TLS Podcast

185 Listeners

City Arts & Lectures by City Arts & Lectures

City Arts & Lectures

390 Listeners

Poured Over by Barnes & Noble

Poured Over

313 Listeners

Close Readings by London Review of Books

Close Readings

77 Listeners

Ordinary Unhappiness by Patrick & Abby

Ordinary Unhappiness

225 Listeners

Critics at Large | The New Yorker by The New Yorker

Critics at Large | The New Yorker

638 Listeners