This latest work centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails 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 curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
