The new book centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
