The new book features characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further 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 – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
