This latest work centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate 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 experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim 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 with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
