This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
