The new book is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
