🔗 Share this article

This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim 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 directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par