🔗 Share this article

The new book features protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure 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 emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par