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This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, 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. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment 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 not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par