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This latest work is populated with protagonists seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an creative who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she states 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, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the kind Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par