The new book is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this appears a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
