This latest work features protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. 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 voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped 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 dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
