The new book centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
