This latest work is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.
From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic
The writer began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.
As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.
As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "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 different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".
The Killing Story
Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
