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The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into conflict. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it deliberately jaded through its repetitions. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her own fresh start, since this appears a new kind of book – observational, truly literary. But then it proves to be packed with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of compelling and abrasive novels lacked the impact and rawness that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It follows that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature redundant.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – none able to break free from their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to rural Connecticut. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

From my perspective as a reader fond of honed writing of the sort Kraus herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader who favors precise prose of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a novel degree of detail that allows space for minutiae, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she is annoyed by the enjoyment audiences such as myself have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while moving between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned 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 America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Then we reach to the actual killing – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day alongside her friends, loitering having his vehicle repaired and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who becomes vivid partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par