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This latest work is populated with characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse cycles through low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par