The new book features characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero 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 most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
