The new book centers on characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist 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 "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
