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This latest work centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges 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 Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par