🔗 Share this article

This latest work centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par