The new book is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses 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 story. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma 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 wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
