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The new book centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par