This latest work is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges 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 comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
