The new book features characters pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer was originally an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex 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 killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
