This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, 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 story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
