The new book centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care 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 audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
