The new book centers on characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
