This latest work is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. 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 marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
