The new book centers on characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes 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. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. 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 covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed 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 go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
