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This latest work features protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt 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, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when 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, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par