The new book features characters chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
