This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
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 dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit 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 alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
