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The new book is populated with protagonists chasing after fresh starts, trying to break free from substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Kraus often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through recurring use. Phrases such as "He aimed to start over" and "They chose to begin anew" recur in the text. Meanwhile, she is embarking on her own fresh start, because this presents as a different type of work – fact-based, authentically narrative. However it reveals itself to be laden with the same dilemmas and approaches as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Iconic Work

Chris Kraus began as an artist who transitioned to writing almost accidentally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, transforming intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She continued writing, but the next trio of engaging and challenging novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the letter form brought to the narrative voice of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a maverick maker who had turned into a major property owner, so there was much discussion on property transactions. It makes sense that she presently aims to explore new kinds of material, looking outwards to the experiences of others, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, One Unescapable Past

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing several time periods – none able to break free from their histories. The book includes the tale of characters Emma and Jasper, versions of her own mother and father, moving from the urban environment to rural Connecticut. Then there is the story of Kraus herself, in the character of Catt Greene, confronting the belated success of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse a man named Paul. Finally the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a town largely deserted by liberal ideals only a brief drive from Catt's rural residence in a remote part of Minnesota.

As a reader drawn to polished prose of the kind Kraus typically rejects, I was captivated by the novelistic voice of the first section.

As someone who reads who favors honed writing of the style that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that allows space for trivial aspects, like the bucket that the young Catt frees from the ice at the beginning of the narrative, assisted by her beloved father. "Look, an ice toy!" she declares; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language tumbling in their mouths like sweet treats". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not precisely her dream."

Disappointment and Disjunction

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could persist to the end. Kraus notes here that she resents the pleasure those who appreciate polished prose have gotten from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the messy artistic approach she shares with her idol Kathy Acker, and the emptiness and redundancy of her previous novels reasserts itself in the central part. Catt is attempting to do up 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while shuttling between two different states, failing to help Paul control his drinking. She experiences powerlessness as Paul transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society fueled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on social media, her occupation changed from "author" to "property owner" on the online encyclopedia. The author still appears to be overly concerned about this. At one point she states that she's investigating the murder so that before exiting the region, "she may grasp something about an the nation that her social media opponents would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

So then we come to the actual killing – and the titular day passed by the deceased with the murderer and his companions. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when a man named Brandon came to visit Brittney after meeting her on an app where she sold sex pictures. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day in the company of her associates, mooching around having his vehicle repaired and funding treats and narcotics, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's boyfriend a man named Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has repeatedly received inpatient care for fits of anger.

Fascination and Incompletion

The protagonist becomes fixated by the account, and I was intrigued by the way that her twin drives towards accurate chronicling and reckless transgression tussle in this section. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of Catt's identification with her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. The author informs us that Catt speaks to Brittney in jail, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels curiously unresolved, to the point that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par