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This latest work is populated with characters seeking fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this seems a novel form of writing – observational, authentically narrative. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as 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 intimate women's literature from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature redundant.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus herself often disregards, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day passed by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being shot by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par