This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.
From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic
Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Several Eras, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".
The Killing Story
Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
