The new book centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work
The writer began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended 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
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with 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 detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
