The new book is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
