This latest work features characters chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. 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 disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
