The new book is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
