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This latest work is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the style that the author tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this different style could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par