The new book features individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
