The new book features individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "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 actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
