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The new book centers on individuals pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the text. At the same time, she seems to be making her personal new beginning, since this seems a new kind of book – observational, genuinely novelistic. But then it reveals itself to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, converting intimate women's literature from humiliation into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she now wants to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a community largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus often avoids, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening part.

Being a reader who favors crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as Brandon came to visit Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, loitering fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was fascinated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards responsible documentation and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails 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 oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par