This latest work is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
