The new book features characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
