The new book is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. 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 paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
