The new book centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". 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 fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
