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This latest work features individuals seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

The writer began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down 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 taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par