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The new book features individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, since this seems a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par