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This latest work is populated with protagonists pursuing fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, because this seems a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be filled with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from humiliation into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the story of the murder of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment propelled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her listed profession modified from "author" to "property owner" 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 departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to go further into her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par