The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering 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 youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to 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
