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This latest work centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered 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 looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par