This latest work centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
