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This latest work features individuals seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this presents as a different type of work – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. But then it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

The writer began as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format brought to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that current political era makes confessional writing obsolete.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world driven by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus has great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par