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The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the killer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par