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This latest work is populated with individuals pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, as this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is 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 account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she states that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the victim with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes 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