The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
