This latest work is populated with characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket 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 elliptical meanings of words 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."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
