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The new book centers on protagonists seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author often employs the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into willfully cynical through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this appears a different type of work – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be packed with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an creative who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing three generations – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by liberal ideals only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that makes room for small details, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par