The new book is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
