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This latest work features individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par