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This latest work centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, the author herself seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she currently desires to try out different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the story of characters Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par