This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
