The new book features protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
