The new book centers on characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.
As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
