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This latest work is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par