This latest work features characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks 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 overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par