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The new book features individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the story. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

The writer was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she now wants to experiment with fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their pasts. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to honed writing of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "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 different style could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers an electoral success. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par