The new book features individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment 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 Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene 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 curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
