The new book centers on characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence 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 locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
