The new book is populated with individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, 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. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
