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The new book centers on protagonists seeking fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. However it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "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 wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed 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 individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par