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The new book is populated with characters chasing after clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the story. And yet, she appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this presents as a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it proves to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus began as an artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, converting personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, confronting the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her partner struggling with addiction her husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the opening part.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, aided by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this new voice could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. In a moment she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and knows hour by hour what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par