The new book centers on characters seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
