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This latest work is populated with individuals chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, since this presents as a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a renegade artist who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors precise prose of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the anger and fear that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par