The new book features characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally 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 confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
