This latest work centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
