This latest work centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much 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 the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
