This latest work features individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application 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 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.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
