The new book is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
