The new book features characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
