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The new book centers on protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this appears a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to try out different types of content, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – each trapped by their pasts. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening part.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par