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The new book centers on characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, as this seems a different type of work – observational, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from humiliation into defiance. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels missed the impact and rawness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a nonconformist creator who had become a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a period in which she asserts that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on the author's parents, relocating from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. There is the account of Kraus, in the character of Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from the protagonist's home in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was captivated by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the kind that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It possesses a novel degree of detail that accommodates small details, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this different style could last out the book. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her past books comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that drives Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on a reference site. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's researching the homicide so that before exiting the region, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would not understand, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what transpired when the victim Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, mooching around getting his car mended and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is the character Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par