This latest work centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
