The new book centers on characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice 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 dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
