This latest work is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs 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
