This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
