This latest work centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as 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 getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
