The new book features characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness 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 evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says 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 not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man 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 her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
