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This latest work is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par