This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual 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 attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
