This latest work features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
