The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."
Frustration and Disruption
I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".
The Homicide Account
So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
