This latest work features characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
