This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named 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 community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see 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 in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
