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This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed 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. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par