This latest work features characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
