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This latest work centers on characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the kind the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment fueled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man 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 accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par