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The new book is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par