The new book centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
