The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
