This latest work features individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated 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 taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
