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The new book features characters pursuing clean slates, struggling to escape addictions or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. The author repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the story. At the same time, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her individual reinvention, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from humiliation into assassination. She persisted as a writer, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the letter form infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her identity as a maverick maker who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It makes sense that she currently desires to explore fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative unnecessary.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, encompassing multiple eras – all unable to escape their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the belated success of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. And there is the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality long abandoned by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to honed writing of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the opening segment. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". She tells Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was bound to become frustrated when I expected this new voice could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her past books reasserts itself in the central part. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while shuttling between two different states, unable to aid Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society propelled by the rage and anxiety that underpins a political win. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on Twitter, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the murder itself – and the referenced day experienced by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partly through Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par