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The new book centers on characters seeking new beginnings, struggling to escape drugs or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into aggression. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "clean slate", rendering it willfully cynical through constant reiteration. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" are scattered across the story. At the same time, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this presents as a novel form of writing – observational, truly literary. But then it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus was originally an visual artist who became a writer somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, converting confessional female writing from self-debasement into rebellion. She continued writing, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on property transactions. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, directing her gaze to other people's stories, at a moment when she asserts that current political era renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing three generations – none able to break free from their backgrounds. There is the story of a couple named Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the Bronx to rural Connecticut. There is the account of Kraus, in the persona of Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband her husband Paul. Finally the story of the murder of one lost young man by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in the Minnesota countryside.

As a reader drawn to refined literature of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads who appreciates crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was captivated by the literary tone of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her cherished parent. "I found an ice toy!" she says; "a lovely toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "Emma felt like she'd stepped into a dream – not hers, exactly."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the pleasure readers like me have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disjunction, to the unpolished style she echoes from her inspiration Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as her spouse moves between underfunded jobs as an substance abuse counselor in a world propelled by the hostility and dread that powers a political win. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt's social media ostracism on a platform, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. She still gives the impression to be overly concerned about this. At one point she remarks that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would not even see".

The Murder Narrative

Thus we arrive to the murder itself – and the referenced day passed by the victim with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus utilizes compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what transpired when Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but seems affably to have spent the day in the company of her associates, mooching around fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being murdered by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has repeatedly received inpatient care for aggressive outbursts.

Preoccupation and Open Ends

Catt develops an obsession by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that Kraus's dual urges towards accurate chronicling and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a struggling, neglected community. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the point that her narrative ends almost mid-par