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The new book centers on individuals chasing after new beginnings, struggling to escape substance abuse or harmful partnerships, only to see hope turn into conflict. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "new beginning", rendering it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, Kraus herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, since this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as earlier books.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, spanning several time periods – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, relocating from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the persona of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort the author herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that makes room for small details, like the pail that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a lovely toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's narrative with interest and closeness. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this different style could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "writer" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his friends. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as the victim Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, mooching around fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt speaks to Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par