The new book is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
