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The new book centers on individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind drugs or harmful partnerships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it deliberately jaded through recurring use. Sentences like "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, Kraus herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, since this presents as a novel form of writing – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an artist who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, structured as letters to an unreceptive lover, transforming intimate women's literature from abjection into defiance. She persisted as a writer, but the following three compelling and abrasive novels did not possess the shock and immediacy that the correspondence format infused into the voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had evolved into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on housing investments. It makes sense that she now wants to try out new kinds of material, directing her gaze to external narratives, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate makes confessional writing redundant.

Multiple Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, covering three generations – none able to break free from their histories. We encounter the tale of a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of Kraus's parents, transitioning from the New York borough to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the ascent of a political figure, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one troubled youth by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader attracted to honed writing of the type Kraus tends to eschew, I was enchanted by the narrative style of the first section.

Being a reader who appreciates honed writing of the style that Kraus often disregards, I was captivated by the storytelling approach of the initial part. It possesses a novel degree of detail that allows space for trivial aspects, like the container that the young Catt dislodges from ice at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she exclaims; "a lovely toy", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's narrative with inquiry and familiarity. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I hoped this new voice could last out the book. Kraus says here that she resents the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol author Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, unable to aid Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a society fueled by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her professional designation altered from "writer" to "real estate holder" on Wikipedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she states that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp 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 titular day spent by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. Kraus utilizes great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

The protagonist becomes fixated by the narrative, and I was intrigued by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and audacious rule-breaking wrestle in this part. Yet I wished her to explore more thoroughly her individual preoccupations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who comes alive in part due to Catt's identification with her – another bright, bullied girl going off the rails in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she doesn't dramatise these conversations. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par