The new book features characters seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
