This latest work centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because 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 Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
