This latest work is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer started out as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.
From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
