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The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" 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 leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp 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 titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par