This latest work centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
