This latest work features individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character 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. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
