This latest work features individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
