This latest work centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
