The new book features characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
