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This latest work features protagonists chasing after new beginnings, attempting to leave behind drugs or abusive marriages, only to find hope curdling into conflict. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", making it intentionally weary through constant reiteration. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They chose to begin anew" appear throughout the story. And yet, Kraus herself seems to be making her individual reinvention, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, truly literary. However it turns out to be filled with the familiar conflicts and approaches as her previous works.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Kraus was originally an artist who became a writer almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, transforming personal female narrative from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the three subsequent fascinating and rebarbative novels missed the shock and immediacy that the letter form imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her identity as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was much discussion on real estate deals. It makes sense that she presently aims to experiment with new kinds of material, turning outward to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their histories. The book includes the narrative about Emma and Jasper, representations of her own mother and father, moving from the Bronx to the Connecticut countryside. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. The third thread involves the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening part.

As someone who reads drawn to honed writing of the style that Kraus herself usually avoids, I was seduced by the storytelling approach of the first section. There is a fresh level of observation that makes room for small details, like the pail that the young Catt pries out of frozen water at the opening of the book, aided by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like piece candy". She tells 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 destined to be disappointed when I expected this new voice could last out the book. The author states here that she dislikes the satisfaction readers like me have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disruption, to the unpolished style she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works comes back in the second segment. The protagonist is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in Albuquerque's worst neighbourhoods while shuttling between Minnesota and LA, failing to help Paul manage his alcohol use. She feels helpless as Paul cycles through low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a world fueled by the hostility and dread that powers Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about the protagonist facing cancellation on social media, her professional designation altered from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's investigating the murder so that before leaving Minnesota, "she could potentially understand something about an the nation that her social media opponents would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Thus we arrive to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. Kraus has great source material, and details moment by moment what happened when a man named Brandon came to meet Brittney after meeting her on an app where she offered adult photos. He sought a sexual encounter but appears congenially to have passed the day alongside her friends, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has often been institutionalized for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

Catt develops an obsession by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards responsible documentation and reckless transgression tussle in this section. However, I would have preferred her to explore more thoroughly her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – another bright, bullied girl derailing in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that Catt converses with Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels strangely incomplete, to the degree that her narrative ends almost mid-par