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This latest work centers on individuals chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "new beginning", making it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He could make a fresh start" and "They opted for a clean break" are scattered across the narrative. At the same time, Kraus herself is embarking on her own fresh start, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the familiar conflicts and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Renowned Book

The writer started out as an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style brought to the tone of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to explore different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that current political era makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. There is the narrative of the author, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community largely deserted by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section.

As a reader who appreciates honed writing of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the literary tone of the initial part. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, helped by her cherished parent. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the nuanced interpretations of terms tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was destined to be disappointed when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels returns in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as her spouse transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "writer" to "property owner" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his friends. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I was fascinated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. But I'd have liked her to go further into her personal fixations here. The most interesting character is Brittney, who gains dimension partly through Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par