This latest work centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
