The new book is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
