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The new book centers on protagonists pursuing new beginnings, struggling to escape addictions or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it willfully cynical through its repetitions. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" are scattered across the narrative. And yet, the author herself is embarking on her own fresh start, since this presents as a different type of work – observational, authentically narrative. Yet it proves to be laden with the recurring issues and styles as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book

Chris Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the impact and rawness that the letter form imparted to the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a renegade artist who had turned into a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she currently desires to experiment with new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a period in which she claims that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering three generations – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the story of the murder of one troubled youth by another in a community mostly forsaken by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in a remote part of Minnesota.

For this reader fond of refined literature of the sort the author herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to honed writing of the variety that Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section. It exhibits a novel degree of detail that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, aided by her beloved father. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a great plaything", he replies, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". The author narrates the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she echoes from her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels comes back in the second segment. Catt Greene is working on refurbishing three dozen dilapidated units in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while traveling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a world fueled by the anger and fear that drives an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on Twitter, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on a reference site. She still gives the impression to invest excessive emotion about this. At one point she says that she's looking into the killing so that before leaving Minnesota, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even perceive".

The Homicide Account

Then we reach to the murder itself – and the referenced day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his companions. The author possesses excellent raw material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to see Brittney after connecting via an application where she offered adult photos. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and funding treats and narcotics, before being shot by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was fascinated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her own obsessions here. The standout figure is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in prison, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par