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The new book is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, because this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par