This latest work features protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
