This latest work features individuals seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, 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 was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
