This latest work centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
