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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence 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 long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par