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The new book features protagonists pursuing new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to try out different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim 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 troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for small details, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like piece candy". She tells the tale of Emma with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works returns in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her social media opponents would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the killer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partly through Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par