This latest work centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 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 Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
