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The new book is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the story. At the same time, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par