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The new book is populated with characters seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind addictions or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He could make a fresh start" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. And yet, she is embarking on her personal new beginning, as this presents as a new kind of book – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing somewhat by chance with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she asserts that Trumpian politics turns intimate literature unnecessary.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, relocating from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband a man named Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to refined literature of the type Kraus herself typically rejects, I was enchanted by the literary tone of the initial segment.

As someone who reads who favors crafted language of the variety that Kraus usually avoids, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". She tells Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not entirely her own."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could persist to the end. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She experiences powerlessness as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Murder Narrative

So then we come to the murder itself – and the eponymous day experienced by the victim with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, and knows hour by hour what transpired when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering getting his car mended and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has frequently been hospitalised for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to delve deeper into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par