This latest work is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. 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 killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par