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The new book features characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par