This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma 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 different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. 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 departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
