This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "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 last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units 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 transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
