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The new book features protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, she seems to be making her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating confessional female writing from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that underpins an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her listed profession modified from "author" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression 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 Twitter detractors would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par