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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It follows that she presently aims to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment readers like me have derived 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 returns in the central part. The protagonist is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par