This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
