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This latest work centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a moment when she states that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with 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 story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par