This latest work centers on characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally 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 rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named 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 alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
