The new book is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest 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 found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
