The new book centers on characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author'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, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named 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 narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
