The new book is populated with individuals pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
