The new book centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style 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 significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to 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 prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
