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This latest work centers on individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being 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 first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par