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The new book features characters pursuing fresh starts, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "clean slate", transforming it into deliberately jaded through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, as this seems a new kind of book – documentarian, authentically narrative. Yet it turns out to be filled with the recurring issues and aesthetics as past novels.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an creative who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels lacked the power and directness that the letter form brought to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a maverick maker who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she states that Trumpian politics renders personal narrative redundant.

Several Eras, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. We encounter the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the narrative of the author, in the character of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. And there is the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town largely deserted by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to polished prose of the type Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was won over by the literary tone of the opening segment. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for trivial aspects, like the pail that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a great plaything", he answers, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this different style could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her inspiration writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works returns in the second segment. Catt Greene is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while moving between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the rage and anxiety that drives Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she states that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she may grasp something about an the United States that her online critics would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

Thus we arrive to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and knows hour by hour what occurred as the victim Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she marketed explicit images. He sought a sexual encounter but seems affably to have spent the day with her companions, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I was intrigued 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 individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of Catt seeing herself in her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in prison, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par