This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired 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 frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
