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This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see 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 fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par