The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
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, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, 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 substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
