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This latest work centers on individuals pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. 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 low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner 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 narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par