The new book is populated with individuals pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
