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This latest work features characters pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, since this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she states that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named 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 a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort the author herself typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She feels helpless as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par