🔗 Share this article

The new book centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, 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 remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par