The new book is populated with individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting 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 Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
