This latest work features protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth 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 honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
