The new book centers on characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
