This latest work features individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing 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 extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
