This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.
From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work
The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.
As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.
As a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".
The Homicide Account
Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.
Fascination and Incompletion
Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par
