The new book centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator 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 experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
