This latest work is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
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 daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
