This latest work centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone 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 significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
