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This latest work features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

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

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par