This latest work centers on characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. 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 fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
