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The new book features protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par