This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the 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 real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized 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 audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
