This latest work centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering 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 repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
