The new book features individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as past novels.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. 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 narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par