This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit 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 in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
