This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role 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 presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
