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The new book features characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par