This latest work features characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
