This latest work features individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
