The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion 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 social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
