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The new book is populated with individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting 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 troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par