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This latest work is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails 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 curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par