The new book is populated with protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals 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 sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
