The new book centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.
Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par
