The new book is populated with characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten 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 void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
