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The new book is populated with characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece 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 hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion 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 the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step 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 amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about 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 fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par