The new book is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
