This latest work is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated 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 explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
