🔗 Share this article

This latest work features protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par