The new book centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide 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 Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
