This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
