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The new book is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author'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 late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par