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This latest work centers on characters seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or toxic relationships, only to find hope curdling into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the story. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it reveals itself to be filled with the recurring issues and approaches as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had become a major property owner, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader who favors precise prose of the kind that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the opening of the book, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her earlier works comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par