This latest work features characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet 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 in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
