The new book features individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice 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 property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Frustration and Disruption
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration 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 Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named 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 alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
