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This latest work centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, because this seems a different type of work – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus started out as an creative who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a renegade artist who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative obsolete.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town long abandoned by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

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

Being a reader drawn to precise prose of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that accommodates small details, like the pail that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, aided by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this different style could continue through the novel. The author states here that she is annoyed by the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books returns in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a environment fueled by the anger and fear that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "property owner" on a reference site. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an America that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the titular day experienced by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what occurred as a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par