This latest work is populated with characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion 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 America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
