The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
