The new book centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making 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 text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
