The new book centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of 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 extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
