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The new book features characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, she is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par