🔗 Share this article

The new book centers on individuals pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

The writer started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone 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 housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the story of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

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 clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par