The new book centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
