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This latest work centers on characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, the author herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. 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 substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting her husband curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par