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The Four Spent the Day Together is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par