The new book centers on individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "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 fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, 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 struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
