The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
