The new book centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter 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 shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
