The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
