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This latest work features characters seeking clean slates, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the text. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. But then it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from abjection into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the correspondence format infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing three generations – all unable to escape their histories. There is the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, transitioning from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, assisted by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness 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 shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a environment fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states 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 online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the murderer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par