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This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "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 wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim 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 in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par