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This latest work features protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the epistolary style brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard 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 destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par