This latest work features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
