The new book is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
