The new book is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic
The writer started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.
Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.
As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Homicide Account
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par
