The new book features characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
