🔗 Share this article

This latest work is populated with individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance 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 kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning 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 story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par