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The new book is populated with individuals seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to refined literature of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who favors honed writing of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she resents the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par