This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
