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The new book centers on individuals chasing after clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. The book includes the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the type the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that makes room for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par