The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
