This latest work centers on characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
