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The new book centers on characters chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It makes sense that she now wants to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she states that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one lost young man 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.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par