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This latest work centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, trying to break free from addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. But then it proves to be filled with the recurring issues and styles as earlier books.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into defiance. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to explore different types of content, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she asserts that current political era turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a locality mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader drawn to polished prose of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the opening segment. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the central part. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help her husband manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a environment driven by the rage and anxiety that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt speaks to Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par