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The new book centers on characters chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", making it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this appears a novel form of writing – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

The writer began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to external narratives, at a moment when she states that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society driven by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire 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 found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par