This latest work is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
