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The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the anger and fear that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par