This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.
Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. 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 rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "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
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
