This latest work features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
