This latest work centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
