In Conversation: Chris Kraus & Declan Fry

I speak to Chris Kraus on the eve of the publication of The Four Spent the Day Together, her first novel in over a decade. The author of five works of fiction, several collections of art criticism, an acclaimed biography of Kathy Acker, and founder of Semiotext(e)’s “Native Agents” series, Kraus is best known for her 1997 debut I Love Dick. It took time to find its audience, but once it did, you couldn’t escape its iconic pink and green Peter Dyer cover (the book was everywhere on social media circa 2016, nestled near collections of succulents, tastefully flaunted on the tram and tube). Depicting the plight of the woman in the art world who has something to say, its protagonist, Chris, senses her last chance to pull out the stops, kick out the jams, and make some noise. It reads like the work of someone who has just discovered language: a language for her anger, a language for her desire. She can’t get enough of it. Over the novel’s few hundred pages, a dizzying, tremendously funny story of passion, self-assertion, and craving plays out. When we speak, it is summer. She is, she says, finally taking a break.

 —  Declan Fry