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The Four Spent the Day Together features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as 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 with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par