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The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par