The new book centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression 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 the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses 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 offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, 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 youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
