This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet 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 with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
