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This latest work is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par