This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, 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.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
