The new book centers on characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see 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 with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
