This latest work is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.
As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
