🔗 Share this article

This latest work centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par