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This latest work features characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par