This latest work is populated with characters pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app 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 having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid 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 Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
