This latest work is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
