The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
