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This latest work centers on protagonists chasing after clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. At the same time, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, as this appears a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the murderer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par