This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
