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The new book centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist 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. Finally the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased 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 meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par