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The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, 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 own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par