This latest work centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
