The new book centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
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 histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
