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This latest work is populated with protagonists chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this appears a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be packed with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with fresh narrative sources, turning outward to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – each trapped by their backgrounds. There is the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors honed writing of the style that the author often disregards, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". The author narrates the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she dislikes the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she has in common with her idol Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid her husband curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par