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This latest work is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Chris Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the story. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this appears a new kind of book – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an visual artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the correspondence format brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on her own mother and father, transitioning from the urban environment to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the type the author herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the first section. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for minutiae, like the container that the protagonist as a child frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I hoped this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse cycles through poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. 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 could potentially understand something about an America that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, loitering getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par