The new book centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
