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The new book is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par