The new book is populated with individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, 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 identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
