The new book is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit 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 in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
