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This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice 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 housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par