The new book centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point 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 online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
