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This latest work features individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. 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 contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around 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 repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par