🔗 Share this article

This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man 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 refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par