This latest work centers on characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
