The new book centers on characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
