This latest work centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
