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This latest work is populated with characters chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the type Kraus often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par