The new book centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
