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This latest work features characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this appears a novel form of writing – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a renegade artist who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States 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 passed by the deceased with the killer and his associates. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par