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The new book is populated with individuals seeking clean slates, attempting to leave behind addictions or abusive marriages, only to see hope turn into aggression. Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the text. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her personal new beginning, as this appears a novel form of writing – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it proves to be packed with the same dilemmas and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Chance Novelist to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus started out as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, structured as epistles to an unresponsive love interest, converting personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the power and directness that the correspondence format imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a renegade artist who had turned into a extensive real estate holder, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It is logical that she currently desires to explore new kinds of material, turning outward to external narratives, at a period in which she claims that contemporary political climate turns intimate literature obsolete.

Multiple Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – all unable to escape their pasts. The book includes the story of Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one lost young man by another in a town long abandoned by liberal ideals only 80 miles from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the sort Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads drawn to crafted language of the variety that the author tends to eschew, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates minutiae, like the pail that the young Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language circulating in their speech like hard candy". The author narrates Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I wished this new voice could persist to the end. Kraus says here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she echoes from her hero author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her previous novels comes back in the central part. The protagonist is trying to renovate multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between Minnesota and LA, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an addiction therapist in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that underpins an electoral success. There are several pages about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "novelist" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. She still gives the impression to care a little too much about this. At one point she says that she's investigating the murder so that before departing the state, "she could potentially understand something about an the United States that her online critics would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the referenced day passed by the murdered individual with the murderer and his associates. Kraus utilizes excellent raw material, 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 sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and paying for snacks and drugs, before being murdered by her romantic interest Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her individual preoccupations here. The most interesting character is the character Brittney, who becomes vivid partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus tells us that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. This entire part feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par