The new book centers on characters chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening part.
Being a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
