The new book is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
