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This latest work features characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the story. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of polished prose of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the satisfaction 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 writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par