The new book features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book
The writer was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.
Three Generations, One Unescapable Past
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.
For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.
Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."
Letdown and Fragmentation
I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".
The Murder Narrative
Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.
Preoccupation and Open Ends
Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par
