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This latest work is populated with characters pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, she seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment propelled by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day passed by the victim with the killer and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, 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