🔗 Share this article

The new book centers on characters pursuing new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, 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 structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed 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 connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par