This latest work centers on individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence 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 town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
