The new book centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment 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 Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
