The new book features characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
