The new book centers on characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
