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This latest work features individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" recur in the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this seems a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. However it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the following three engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. There is the tale of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus herself often avoids, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

Being a reader who appreciates precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels returns in the middle section. Catt is attempting to do up multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an addiction therapist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par