This latest work is populated with individuals seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
