The new book centers on characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
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 epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, 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 Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named 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, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
