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The Four Spent the Day Together centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par