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This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par