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This latest work centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "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 eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par