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The new book is populated with characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, as this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – 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 dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much 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 United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par