The new book is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this 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 follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned 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 overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with 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
