🔗 Share this article

This latest work features characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par