This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this 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 currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.
Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket 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 exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around 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 frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
