The new book features characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "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 fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application 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 covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
