This latest work features individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
