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The new book centers on protagonists pursuing clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with 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 fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par