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The new book features characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape addictions or toxic relationships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", transforming it into intentionally weary through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. But then it reveals itself to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into rebellion. She persisted as a writer, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success 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 troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the type the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was won over by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the enjoyment readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. On one occasion 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 online critics would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus has compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man 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 ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par