This latest work centers on characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states 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 social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
