This latest work features individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
