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This latest work features individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. However it reveals itself to be filled with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an addiction therapist in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par