This latest work centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
