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This latest work centers on individuals seeking new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Renowned Book

The writer began as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to try out fresh narrative sources, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their pasts. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a locality mostly forsaken by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her adored dad. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like sweet treats". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction audiences such as myself have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she echoes from her idol author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. Kraus has great source material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through the protagonist's connection to her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par