🔗 Share this article

This latest work centers on characters chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of 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 character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par