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The new book is populated with protagonists pursuing clean slates, trying to break free from addictions or harmful partnerships, only to find hope curdling into violence. Chris Kraus frequently uses the phrase "fresh start", transforming it into intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They opted for a clean break" recur in the narrative. And yet, she seems to be making her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it proves to be filled with the same dilemmas and styles as past novels.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

Kraus started out as an creative who entered the literary world somewhat by chance with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of epistles to an unresponsive love interest, elevating confessional female writing from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the power and directness that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. This was not aided by was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It follows that she currently desires to try out fresh narrative sources, looking outwards to external narratives, at a period in which she states that current political era renders personal narrative redundant.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, spanning multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. We encounter the narrative about characters Emma and Jasper, representations of Kraus's parents, moving from the Bronx to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the guise of a figure named Catt Greene, grappling with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one lost young man by another in a locality long abandoned by progressive politics only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in the Minnesota countryside.

From my perspective as a reader fond of refined literature of the sort Kraus tends to eschew, I was captivated by the narrative style of the first section.

As someone who reads who appreciates honed writing of the kind that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the opening segment. It possesses a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for small details, like the bucket that the youthful Catt dislodges from ice at the opening of the book, helped by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he answers, "the nuanced interpretations of terms circulating in their speech like hard candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not entirely her own."

Frustration and Disruption

I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she resents the enjoyment audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's committed to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her idol writer Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her past books comes back in the central part. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the most troubled areas of Albuquerque while moving between two different states, unsuccessful in assisting Paul manage his alcohol use. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that powers an electoral success. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on a platform, her occupation changed from "author" to "real estate holder" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she says that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the United States that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the murdered individual with the perpetrator and his associates. Kraus utilizes great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He sought a sexual encounter but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, loitering fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner a man named Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the story, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and audacious rule-breaking clash in this segment. But I'd have liked her to go further into her own obsessions here. The most interesting character is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails 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 whole section feels oddly unfinished, to the extent that her narrative ends almost mid-par