The new book features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
