The new book centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
