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This latest work is populated with characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par