The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par
