The new book is populated with protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "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 expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived 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 previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced 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 a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
