The new book is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
