This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
