This latest work features individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
