The new book centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. 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 leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
