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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 violence. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it proves to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par