This latest work centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
