This latest work features characters pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
