The new book is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.
The writer started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.
The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
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