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The new book is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment 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 United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par