The new book is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
