🔗 Share this article

This latest work features characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par