The new book is populated with protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story 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 hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
