This latest work centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
