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This latest work is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words 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 hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par