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The new book centers on protagonists chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – documentarian, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par