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This latest work centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par