The new book is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder 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 overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
