The new book centers on protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
