🔗 Share this article

This latest work centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par