This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, 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 go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
