This latest work centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
