This latest work features characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
