The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
